


A Certain Dignity

by mmmdraco



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Community: fifthmus, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-17
Updated: 2012-07-17
Packaged: 2017-11-10 04:25:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/462177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmmdraco/pseuds/mmmdraco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She is both certain and uncertain as to why Mitani would pick Kaneko over her. (Fifthmus fic - round #5)</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Certain Dignity

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I mean no harm, I have no money... Stuff like that. Yeah.

She watched Mitani laugh and tried to suppress the feelings that were currently welling up inside her. She didn't even like Mitani that way! But, wasn't she attractive enough to catch his eye?

Akari glanced down at herself. She was slender, with clear pale skin and more of a chest than many of her classmates. She wore her skirts short enough, she thought, and she dressed cutely when she wasn't in her uniform. So, why would a guy like Mitani choose to go after Kaneko instead of her?

She sat back roughly in her seat, trying to ignore the pair flirting over the goban. They were loud, though, so she kept glancing up and finding herself looking at Mitani again. When he continued to ignore her, she turned her attention to Kaneko. They weren't the greatest of friends, really, but they were headed that way. Kaneko had certainly helped her forge the beginnings of the Go Club. She'd honestly only kept it going in the first place because it was special to Hikaru, but she'd grown to love it all the same. 

Kaneko had never worn makeup that Akari knew of, and her face showed signs that she'd had a few blemishes recently. Her eyes were perhaps a bit beady, but that might have just been a result of the extra weight she carried. She wasn't thin by any means, though she still had a shape about her, which was more than could be said of a lot of the larger girls at their school. Her haircut wasn't anything to brag about, and Kaneko's skirt? It was the regulation length; no more and no less.

How could boys be attracted to someone like that in this world and age where image had become so much of everything? On top of that, she found that boys and girls of a vaguely similar attractiveness level seemed to pair off much better than when one was so much more attractive than the other, as with Mitani. She didn't like him that way, but she could see that he was an attractive boy.

Kaneko glanced over and raised one eyebrow languidly. "Akari-chan... are you falling in love with Mitani-kun from over there? Move closer! You'll get the full effect of his pheremones, then!"

Akari felt her cheeks heat up as she shook her head. As she glanced back up, she heard Mitani shouting with the fake anger he seemed to reserve only for Kaneko. She was young and didn't really need to be looking for love right now anyway, but it didn't hurt to keep an open mind about it. After all, her parents had met in high school. This was very nearly the time to be putting herself out there, but would there be any takers?

The alarm Akari had set on her watch rang and alerted her that their club activities were to be ending. "Time to pack everything up, guys." She hadn't played that day because only the three of them had shown up. Everyone else had other commitments. She glanced at the stones they'd barely touched. "Want to wash these next time instead?"

Mitani nodded his agreement and held his bag hanging back over one shoulder. "Yeah, I gotta run. I told my mom I'd come home early and bring in the laundry since it's supposed to rain later."

"Early? It's nearly 4:30 now!" Kaneko finished separating the stones into their containers and stood to put them and the board away.

"So? That's way earlier than I normally get home."

"Just go be a good boy for once? Your mother has to worry about you enough as it is." She slid everything back into place and turned to face Mitani again. "Oh, tell her 'thanks' for dinner again. Her miso soup is way better than my mom's."

Akari stuffed the few things she'd grabbed out of her bag to work on during Go Club back into it and tried not to glare at Kaneko. She'd even been to dinner at Mitani's house? Well, sure, she'd been to dinner at Hikaru's house, too, but she'd known him since their hair was the same length.

Mitani had a habit of taking off before really saying anything to anyone else, so Akari wasn't really surprised to look up and notice that he was gone and Kaneko was sitting back in her seat and starting at Akari. "Yes?" she asked the other girl.

"What's going on?" Kaneko replied. "You've seen Mitani and I fight before, but you never really took notice before. Was it just that boring without someone to play? You should have said something! We could have taken turns playing speed go or something."

Akari sat still for a long moment, then stood and made her way to the seat opposite Kaneko. She stared into the other girls eyes without saying anything else. Kaneko sat back and smiled; at ease with Akari watching her. Several minutes passed with Akari just examining the girl in front of her, until she finally spoke. "Do you think I'm beautiful, Kaneko-chan?"

Kaneko's eyes widened slightly. "I would have thought you knew how you looked well enough by now not to need to ask that, Akari-chan."

"What I mean is..." She signed and let her neck roll side to side to work out the kinks beginning to form. "Really, do you think that you're beautiful?"

"Oh, well, I suppose that's a strange question to ask, but I guess I can come up with an answer. Um..." She crossed her legs delicately at the ankle and ran the fingers of one hand through the front of her hair. "I suppose by certain standards and definitions of beauty, I'm a goddess, and by others I'd just a little fat Japanese girl with a bad haircut. But, I'm happy with me and I'm healthy, and I think that's a beauty all its own." She smiled. "How's that?"

"I just..." Akari flattened down the front of her skirt and shook her head slightly. "I look in the mirror sometimes and think that I really lucked out to look how I do, but it doesn't seem to get me anywhere. I still kind of blend into the background sometimes and boys don't really seem to notice that I'm, well, a girl."

"Is this about Mitani?" Kaneko leaned a bit closer with a gleam in her eye.

"No!" Akari held her hands out in front of her and shook her head. "Not at all. He can be a nice guy, but he's all wrong for me. I can't hold a candle to that temper of his. But, there is this one insei friend of Hikaru's, though..."

"Why such a thing for go players?" Kaneko leaned back again and grabbed for her bag, digging around until she found a few peppermints. She handed one to Akari and popped the other in her own mouth. "Well?"

"I... It's just who I meet, I guess. It's easier to imagine a relationship when you actually have something in common. Why should I try to go after a boy I think is cute who I see every morning by the shoe lockers when, for all I know, he secretly collects dolls. People who play go seem to have a certain stability, and I think we can agree there are a fair few who are rather easy on the eyes."

Kaneko smiled and a hint of a laugh escaped her lips. "So, start jumping out of the background. Things don't change unless they have a... what's that word?... a catalyst. Something has to start the ball rolling. Find that thing." 

Akari watched as Kaneko's tongue slipped from between her lips to moisten her upper lip. It was somehow more sensual than anything Akari had ever seen. She looked away and focused on the taste of her peppermint. "How do I find that thing?" 

"I don't know. Try changing some things up here and there and see if anything makes a difference. Start giving people compliments. Sit with someone new at lunch. Wear your skirt a little longer one day and a little shorter the next and see how you feel. Just... do stuff."

The peppermint still sitting heavy on her tongue, Akari felt herself lean forward and place a soft kiss on Kaneko's lips. She sat back and willed herself to stay still instead of running away.

"That's stuff, I suppose," Kaneko said and went digging for another peppermint. "Do you like girls now?"

"I..." Akari shrugged and sank down into the seat. "I think I'm just confused. Maybe I'm just too young to know what I want?"

"Maybe you just don't know what you want because you haven't found it yet." Kaneko pulled a butterscotch candy from her bag and frowned. "Bleh. I'm not eating that after a peppermint." She tossed it back inside and closed her bag. "You want to go take a walk?"

"Sure?" Akari grabbed her own bag and followed her friend out the door. They headed out the main gate with Kaneko in the lead.

"It's so bright out here this time of day!" Kaneko complained as she held an arm up in front of her eyes. "That's the only bad part about it."

Akari looked at her friend with her somewhat beady eyes and a little extra weight and a longer skirt than she wore herself, and stopped thinking that the other girl wasn't beautiful. She was comfortable in her own skin, and that was more than Akari could say for herself. It really wasn't any wonder Mitani flirted with her after all.

"Are you coming?" Kaneko was turned toward her again, with her bag held behind her with both hands and her head cocked to one side. 

"Yeah. Where are we going?"

Kaneko locked arms with Akari and pulled her forward. "We'll see when we get there. Ice cream? A go parlor? Kissing practice?"

Akari felt her cheeks redden again, but she tightened her hold on Kaneko's arm just the same.


End file.
